


Dead Inside

by hollyhock13



Series: Whumptober 2019 [6]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics), Identity Crisis (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Back at it again for, Blood, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt with a little bit of Comfort but lbr it’s not gonna be enough, Jack Drake doesn’t deserve Tim tbh, Prompt: Dragged Away, Psychological Trauma, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-26 14:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20932079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollyhock13/pseuds/hollyhock13
Summary: The death of a boy.





	Dead Inside

**Author's Note:**

> Another based on a canon scene, but a little bit more loosely.
> 
> This does contain blood! If that’s a problem, please exit now. It’s not the most graphic thing I’ve ever read, but it’s also a lot more graphic than most of my writing. The death too.
> 
> A huge thanks to the wonderful [ @Ursapharoh15 ](%E2%80%9C) for help with...everything, but especially the title and summary. I would be nowhere without you!
> 
> Please enjoy!

“Dad, please!”

“I love you, Tim. I love you, I love you like your mother loved you, I love you.”

A gunshot rings out through the house, then over the phone line with a slight delay.

_“DAD!”_

Tim can’t tell how long it takes them to arrive at the house. Minutes could be hours or seconds to his pounding head. 

“DAD!” Tim sprints up the familiar stairs faster than he’s ever done so before. His vision is going blurry and it urges the panic in his belly ever higher. Distantly, he hears Bruce mention the police, that they might be here and they can’t see Robin mourning Jack Drake as his father. He strips away the vestiges of Robin as he runs.

He rounds the corner at the top of the stairs and bursts through the door in his underwear. There lies his father, soaked in crimson with a shining boomerang protruding from his chest. 

Tim thinks sluggishly that perhaps he should have a boomerang protruding from his own chest with the amount of pain he feels there. “Dad, Dad no!” he blubbers as he reaches for the body lying prone on the floor.

His hands find their mark, but it isn’t a pulse point. They wrap tightly around the sharp boomerang. “Get it out,” Tim mutters, no one living near enough to hear.

He pulls harder on the boomerang as he sees the other body across the room. Harkness doesn’t deserve to have his weapon the most prominent item in the room. It isn’t fair! “Get it out!” Tim shouts this time, pulling harder on the blood-slicked blade.

In the part of his brain still whirring along, he thinks,  _That doesn’t make sense._ There shouldn’t be any blood on this section of the boomerang, not this much.

Bruce is here. Tim can’t be sure when that happened, because he doesn’t know when it is right now, or when he himself arrived. All he knows is that there is a _boomerang_ in his father’s  _chest_ and that is  _wrong_! 

“Get it out!” He pleads with Bruce, but instead Batman pries his hands off the murder weapon. Murder. His father was murdered. Batman is wrapping him in his arms and whispering something.

“You’re hurting yourself,” he says, and Tim cannot see what he means. There are too many tears in the way. He lifts a hand to wipe at his eyes, but Bruce catches it before he can touch his face. There is blood on his hands, some from his father—his father is dead,  _murdered_— but most is from the deep cuts on his hands where he gripped the boomerang. He realizes belatedly that perhaps that must be why the weapon was so slippery. 

Batman murmurs softly to Tim as he wraps him in a cape—not Tim’s, but his own.  _You have your father’s blood on your hands,_ Tim thinks as his view is obscured by the cape.  _This is your fault, Timothy Drake._

Bruce is speaking to someone, and it isn’t Tim. He tries to listen anyway; observation is an essential skill for a Robin. He cannot make sense of it, despite being certain he should be able to. 

“The boy is utterly traumatized. I am removing him from the scene. You may retrieve his statement later, once he has cleaned up and been treated for his wounds.”

“I understand, Batman. Where are you taking him?” Tim frowns. There shouldn’t be another voice in the room. The occupants are either dead or him and Bruce. Who could Bruce be talking to?

“To Bruce Wayne. The boy is close to Dick Grayson, Wayne’s ward. He’ll be safe there until you need him.”

“Thank you. This is...a mess, to be sure.” ...the commissioner? When did he get here? Did he...was he there while Tim tarnished the crime scene? Oh, oh no. Does he know that this is Tim’s fault? He must know something is wrong here, that men like Jack Drake is now don’t get targeted by hit men. He’s going to to arrest Tim and discover Bruce’s secret and it’s all because Tim failed.

“Come on, Tim. Let’s go.” Tim feels himself being pulled away from the crime scene, his father’s corpse. The panic and fear and sadness and anger his mind is churning with explode into his chest.

“NO! No, he needs me!” He screams, but it might as well be to a post for all the good it does. He thrashes in the hold. His father needs him! Batman’s arms turn to steel around him and he’s pulled even farther away.

“Son, he’s gone,” Batman intones. “There’s nothing you can do.”

Just like that, all of the fight leaves Tim, his body going limp and helpless. Batman hefts him into his arms. The pressure is somewhat reassuring.

“It’s alright, son. Let’s get you home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, canonically (from what I can tell at least) Jack Drake’s last words were “Tell Bruce to take care of you” so I decided screw that and went a little more off script. (The line in the fic is actually very similar to one said by Jack in the comic as well, just a little earlier in the conversation. I switched it up a bit.) I’m not a fan of Jack Drake by any means, but his role in developing Tim’s character is pretty undeniable imo. His death is probably even more so, if I’m honest. Anyway, thanks for reading!


End file.
